


Clocks Move Faster (It's All We're After)

by dayone



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: (surprise they're alex's), Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Getting Together, Hockey player AU, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Meet-Cute, Multi, Rated T for swearing, Willie plays hockey and the rest work at the rink, mentions of homophobic parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 03:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28593471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dayone/pseuds/dayone
Summary: “Dropped your ball?” Alex starts, while getting up and brushing the dirt off his pants. “Dude, you knocked me over! You’re lucky I wasn’t –“ Alex looks up then at the person who ran into him, whose face pinches in surprise. Alex takes a second to cool off and actually looks at the guy. He seems to be about Alex’s age, in black athletic shorts and a grey t-shirt withProperty of L.A. Phantoms Hockey Clubprinted on it, and his hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of his neck. His outfit reveals muscular arms and toned calves. Somehow, he also manages to glow under the harsh fluorescent lights above them, which Alex thinks is extremely unfair since all they do for him is wash him out.ORa Willex hockey player/rink employee au with absolutely no knowledge of hockey required
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 115
Kudos: 268





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to my completely self-indulgent fic that absolutely no one asked for.  
> no knowledge of hockey is required but here's a quick couple definitions just in case  
>  **houseleague** : a league purely for fun, you play once a week against people in your hometown in the same league. No tryouts required, everyone who signs up plays.  
>  **rep/representative league** : a competitive league where the team represents their hometown and plays against teams from nearby places. Tryouts are required and there are different levels for teams (AAA, AA, A, with AAA being the highest skill level)
> 
> for those that do know hockey, please suspend your disbelief if the age groups or rules are wrong, they're based entirely off the rules where i am and i don't know how it works in the US or LA

If someone had asked Alex when he was eleven how many hours he would spend in the local hockey rink when he was seventeen, he probably would’ve answered zero. However, here he is, in February of his senior year of high school, spending at least fifteen hours a week sitting between the penalty boxes and running the time clock. It had all started two years ago when Luke’s parents insisted that he get a job to try to get him out of the house and away from his guitar. As a result, he picked up a job at the rink cleaning up and handing out skate vouchers during public skate periods. Reggie was quick to follow, starting as public skate marshal after one had quit unexpectedly, then transitioned to a more permanent position so he would have an excuse to stay out of his house.

Alex had been the last to follow, starting just after he turned 16, when a timekeeper for the Sunday house league games failed to show and Luke had begged him to fill in – saying it was just for today, it was super easy to learn, and “the girls are in Novice, Alex, they’re, like, six and can barely skate, they’re so cute to watch”. Luke was right back then; it wasn’t difficult to pick up and didn’t actually require a whole lot of attention. Alex had realized it was a great opportunity to do his homework while also being paid a little more than minimum wage and had applied as soon as a position opened.

So here he is now, seventeen and reading _Othello_ for his English class in the rink on a Sunday morning while that same league of Novices plays on the ice in front of him. It’s one of the first times he’s been able to time keep for them since his first time a year and a half ago. The house league games are played on Sunday mornings and, up until a month or so ago, Alex’s entire family went to church at that time. The rest of his family stills goes to church but, after Alex came out to them in January, his parents strongly implied that he wasn’t to attend with them anymore. While his parents’ reaction still grates on him, he thinks at least he gets to watch little kids try to play hockey like a cute but shitty consolation prize.

Alex rubs at his eyes praying it will make his eyelids feel less heavy. He didn’t sleep well last night and didn’t wake up early enough to get tea before his shift, which he’s definitely regretting right about now. The referee’s whistle blows, and Alex hits the ‘Stop Time’ button while looking up at the ice to see if the stop in play was because of a goal or penalty. It was neither, so while the two teams set up for the faceoff, Alex turns to look at the time clock to see there’s only a minute and change left in the third period. The ref blows his whistle again, signalling the start of play, and Alex starts the time again, not bothering to begin reading again and just watches the final minute play out.

The time in the game winds down and the buzzer sounds when it hits zero, marking the final score of the game as 2-0. The winning team cheers, all trying to get off the bench as fast as they can so they can go congratulate their goalie on her shutout. Alex marks his page and closes his book, so he can watch a dozen or so six-year-old girls launch themselves at the poor goalie. The goalie falls, as Alex expected, and he smiles to himself as the players create a makeshift puppy pile on the ice. Alex didn’t play sports for very long, only playing Little League while he was in kindergarten, but he remembers the post game celebrations very fondly. Eventually, the girls all extract themselves and start lining up at centre ice so both teams can shake hands before they leave the ice.

One of the referees skates over to Alex’s booth to collect the game sheet, and Alex passes it to him through the hole in the glass in front of him.

“You here next week?” The ref asks, taking the sheet.

“Yeah, same as always. The Atom level girls are on next, right?” If Alex’s count was right, all the Novice teams had played so it was onto the next age group.

“Yep, I’m on my way out, Jackie’s coming in. See you next week, dude.” Alex says his own goodbye and the ref skates off to hand over the game sheet to the coaches.

Once everyone had left the ice, Alex hears the Zamboni doors open at the far end of the rink and Luke drives the Zamboni – or “ice resurfacer” as the rink calls them – out onto the ice. Luke waves when he passes by Alex the first time, with a big smile on his face and his hair in his eyes. Alex smiles when he sees Luke’s hair, he always forgets to push back his hair before he put his helmet on. When Luke’s about halfway around his first lap of the ice, Reggie knocks on the glass by the entrance to Alex’s booth.

“Oh hey, Reg, how’s it going?” Alex says, spinning around on his stool.

“Eh, you know, same old same old. You looked pretty lonely out here, so I thought I would stop by while Luke does his little joyride.” Alex laughs. Luke on a Zamboni is always like a joyride. Luke would always deny it, but Alex and Reggie can see just how much he enjoys driving it. The kids love him too since he’s the only driver that waves every time he passes them waiting by the edge of the ice. Sure enough, Luke is just passing the waiting teams now and, judging by the shouts and glass-banging, Luke did continue with his tradition.

“Yeah, it’s just me and Iago out here,” Alex says responding to Reggie’s claim about him being lonely and he picks up his book for emphasis. “Can’t say it’s exactly thrilling but at least I can watch the kids.”

“Iago was a lot more exciting when he was just Jafar’s parrot,” Reggie states while shaking his head.

Alex laughs then responds, “Well now that’s all I’m gonna see when I’m reading this, thanks Reg.”

“I read that in English last semester, it makes the book a hell of a lot more interesting. Trust me, I’m doing you a favour.” Alex nods, and tries to hide his oncoming yawn, but fails miserably based on the look on Reggie’s face. “Long night?”

The sound of the Zamboni leaving the ice saves Alex from responding.

“Oh shit, I’m on shovel duty, I gotta go. See you, Alex!” Reggie shouts over his shoulder as he runs back to the Zamboni.

Alex shakes his head at his friend before returning to his book.

The first period of the next game passes fairly quickly, the group is a little older so the referees have begun calling penalties which is the only real interesting thing that involves Alex. Midway through the second period, someone enters his booth and places a tea on the far side of the table. Alex turns to see Julie, who works at the snack bar, smiling at him.

“Reggie said you were tired, hopefully, this will help.” Julie says in response to Alex’s questioning look.

Just then, there’s a goal and Alex has to turn back to stop the clock and then record the goal. When Alex goes to thank Julie afterwards, she’s gone. He takes a sip of the tea, which has a bit of milk just as he likes it, and he smiles before returning to his book.

* * *

When Alex’s shift ends a few games later, he picks up his bag and empty to-go cup and heads down the hallway to the lobby of the community centre. He exits the rink and turns left to the snack bar. There’s no line, which is a bit of a blessing for a Sunday, and he walks right up to the counter where Flynn, Julie’s best friend and co-worker, is standing.

“Hey Alex, how’s it going?” Flynn greets him brightly. She has turquoise winged eyeliner today _‘to make up for these boring-ass navy uniforms, jeez Luke keep up’_ and is wearing the aforementioned navy uniform.

“Pretty good, can’t complain really. The power didn’t go out today so that’s an improvement.” The week before, the power to the rink had gone out completely, including all of the lights and, unfortunately for Alex, the scoreboard too. The refs had come up to Alex as soon as the power came back and kept asking where the clock was at when it went out, which Alex didn’t know. All in all, it was a very stressful experience for Alex, and Reggie took over timekeeping for the next game while Alex calmed down in the breakroom.

Flynn hums and nods her head. “That’s definitely better. Can I get you anything or are you just hanging out?”

“Actually, I was looking for Julie. She gave me a tea a couple hours ago and I never got to thank her.”

Flynn smiles and says, “She’s in the back getting more coffee, she’ll be out in a second.”

Alex thanks her and then steps to the side when a customer comes up to the counter. Midway through their order, Julie comes out from the back with a container of coffee grounds, just like Flynn said. Alex waits until she’s put them away before calling out to her.

Julie walks over and greets Alex just as brightly as Flynn did. Alex can see why Luke is absolutely head over heels for the girl, she is such a bright and strong soul – unbelievably kind but impossible to walk all over. Luke’s crush definitely hadn’t been helped by the karaoke night they had a few months ago when they all found out for the first time, except for Flynn of course, that Julie has a killer voice.

“I just wanted to thank you for the tea, you were gone when I turned back,” Alex says, playing with the strap on his backpack.

“Oh yeah, no big! Really, you should thank Reggie, he’s the one who swung by here mentioning it.” Alex makes a mental note to go find Reggie before he leaves.

“Still, thank you, it was definitely the pick me up I needed this morning.” Alex opens his mouth to continue but is cut off by Flynn.

“Hey Jules, do you mind making a strawberry banana shake?” Alex and Julie look over to see a significant line had built up in the small time they’d been talking. Julie immediately starts going to make the shake and Alex turns back to the rink and says his goodbyes to the girls on his way back.

Alex is just walking through the doors back into the rink, pulling his phone out of his pocket to text Reggie and ask where he is, when something – no, someone – runs into him at full speed. Alex is knocked down onto the ground and a soccer ball lands by his head.

“Ah man, you made me drop my ball.” Alex hears a guy say from somewhere around him. _Well, that explains the soccer ball_ , Alex thinks.

“Dropped your ball?” Alex starts while getting up and brushing the dirt off his pants. “Dude, you knocked me over! You’re lucky I wasn’t –“ Alex looks up then at the person who ran into him, whose face pinches in surprise. Alex takes a second to cool off and actually looks at the guy. He seems to be about Alex’s age, in black athletic shorts and a grey t-shirt with _Property of L.A. Phantoms Hockey Club_ printed on it, and his hair is tied back in a bun at the nape of his neck. His outfit reveals muscular arms and toned calves, which Alex really tries his best not to get caught on and he only fails a little bit. Somehow, he also manages to glow under the harsh fluorescent lights above them, which Alex thinks is extremely unfair since all they do for him is wash him out.

The boy then leans down to pick up the ball, which luckily hadn’t rolled away. On his way back up, he pulls the hair tie out of his bun causing his dark brown hair to tumble down over his shoulders and making him look just on the right side of tousled. Alex swallows to try and pull himself together, the guy just ran him over and here Alex is practically thirsting over him. _He’s a rep hockey player, he’s probably not even into guys_ , Alex reminds himself before making eye contact with him.

“I really am sorry about that,” the boy starts. “My team had left for warmup without me and I was just trying to catch up.” He does at least have the decency to look apologetic. Alex feels his frustration melt away – although if that’s due to the look on the boy’s face or just the boy’s face in general, Alex isn’t quite sure.

“No, no, it’s alright, really. I should have been looking where I was going.” This makes the boy smile and Alex doesn’t want to sound dramatic, but he genuinely thinks he’d do anything to be able to keep seeing that smile.

The boy shifts the soccer ball to his hip, leaving an arm carelessly thrown over it, and still has the same smile on his face. “I’m Willie, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Alex.” Alex offers back and somehow Willie’s – _Willie! I know his name!_ – smile somehow gets bigger.

“You around here often, Alex?” Part of Alex wants to be upset about the paraphrased pickup line but the other part of his brain going _cute boy wants to know more about you_ wins out.

“Uh, yeah, I time keep.” Alex makes an aborted motion towards his booth across the ice and then immediately thinks _oh god he’s gonna think I’m so not cool – I should’ve said I played or something_. But instead of Willie just brushing it off or, at worst, making fun of him, Willie brightens at Alex’s response.

“Beauty! I gotta go catch up to my team, but we have a game on Tuesday night. If you’re around, I could get you a coffee afterwards to make up for knocking you over?”

“I, uh, yeah, yeah I’m totally working then. That sounds great.”

“Sweet! See you around, hotdog.” Willie then has the audacity to wink and Alex just barely recovers in time to send a questioning look at Willie. In response, Willie clearly looks down at Alex’s socks, which sure enough, are covered in little cartoon hotdogs. Willie laughs a little and then says, “See you later, Alex” while maneuvering around him to leave the rink.

“Bye Willie,” Alex calls back to him and gets a small wave before Willie fully turns around to head to the other ice pad, soccer ball in hand. Alex then turns his glaze down and mumbles, “Okay, okay, that was a thing that happened.”

Alex then realizes he has absolutely no idea if he’s actually working on Tuesday and may now have to pull a few strings to get that shift.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading!! this was supposed to be a one shot but then somehow turned into a multichap fic. i'm hoping to update every week but uni's starting again soon so it might be every two weeks
> 
> you can find me on tumblr @[reversedscene](https://reversedscene.tumblr.com/) and if you drop by don't be shy!! i'm always looking for friends :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the reception of the first chapter! this is the first multichap fic i've written and it's really nice to hear from all of you while i'm writing the rest of it :) 
> 
> CW for this chapter: there's brief mentions of how ingrained homophobia is in hockey culture, with a single reference to the f-slur (although it is not said). this will not become a theme of this story because one thing i really like about willex is that their main conflict isn't homophobia and i'd like to keep it that way

Alex walks into school the next morning, still reeling from the events of the day before. He had gone and found Reggie, after running into Willie, who didn’t comment on the dopey smile Alex was definitely sporting, although Reggie did look suspicious. Even when Alex got home, he couldn’t get the image of Willie’s smile or his hair tumbling down his shoulders out of his mind. Not even the eerie silence that now cloaked his family’s dinner table could reach him last night.

Alex turns down the music hallway to get to his locker. He can already see Luke at his own locker, the three of them – Luke, Alex, and Reggie – had lucked out last semester by having the same homeroom music class and subsequently getting lockers in the same place.

“Alex!” Luke shouts as soon as he sees Alex drawing nearer. “How you been, man?”

“I’ve been good,” Alex says, opening his locker and switching out his books. “Mom and dad still refuse to have a conversation with me, but that’s starting to become normal.” Luke’s face goes through a variety of emotions, seemingly settling on anger and slight sympathy. “Luke, it’s fine.” Luke’s expression gets darker. “Okay, so maybe it’s not, but I really don’t want to think about it at 7:45 am on a Monday.”

Luke's expression does a full 180, going from _I’m going to kick your parents’ asses_ to a slight smile. “Yeah, yeah, of course, Alex.” A dopey smile grows on his face, indicating whatever he’s about to say is 100% about Julie. “Did you see Julie yesterday? She did her hair differently, she put purple strings in her braid, it looked so good! I mean, she’s a wicked beauty, she’d look good with anything, but she was stunning.”

“Sorry, Luke, I don’t think Alex noticed Julie’s hair,” Reggie says from where he just came up behind Alex.

Alex turns around to face Reggie with his hand over his heart. “Jesus _Christ_ Reggie, I didn’t even hear you come up.”

Reggie continues on, fully ignoring Alex’s interruption, “He was distracted by his own massive crush.”

“It isn’t a massive crush, c’mon!”

“So, you admit there is a crush!”

“Wait – Alex, be quiet – what were you saying about a massive crush, Reg?” Alex sees the shit-eating grin on Luke’s face and groans, shifting his gaze to the ceiling.

“I ran into Alex after his shift yesterday and he had the widest smile on his face. All he was doing in the booth was reading _Othello,_ and the only other people he talks to at work are Julie and Flynn, so we know that smile wouldn’t be caused by any of that. So, it’s simple, he has a massive crush on a mystery boy.”

“I did not know you could read me that well,” Alex mutters.

“So, you admit there’s a boy.” Reggie shoots back.

“Okay, yes there’s a boy. I ran into him after my shift,” Alex sees the grins on his friends’ faces grow. “But don’t get ahead of yourselves! He’s a hockey player – so he’s probably a fuckboy – and I don’t even know if he’s into guys.”

“Still, Alex has a crush!” Luke singsongs, elbowing Alex lightly.

“There are so many ways that this could end terribly.”

“Oh, come on! Live a little, Alex, it’s been so long since you’ve had a crush.”

“Plus, how many ways can it go wrong, really?” Reggie adds. 

Alex glares at Reggie. “Do you want them sorted alphabetically or by likelihood?” Just then, the warning bell for class rings. “I’ll see you guys at lunch.” Alex breaks off to head to his first-period class, but before he’s fully out of earshot he hears Luke shout.

“You’re telling us everything at lunch, Mercer!”

Alex rolls his eyes and continues walking down to the English hallway. He has no idea what he’s going to tell everyone about Willie. He barely knows anything about the guy and Alex knows ‘he’s so unbelievably attractive’ won’t cut it for his friends. Willie seems like a decent guy, he was genuinely apologetic yesterday, but Alex has never had an interaction with a hockey boy that ended on a positive note. He didn’t get the impression that Willie was like the others, but it’s not exactly the best track record.

Before Alex knows it, he’s made it to his homeroom class and is sitting in his usual spot in the third row, not quite at the front or the back. Alex pulls out his notebook and copy of _Othello,_ preparing for an hour discussing how if Othello had just stopped to think about something for once then this play wouldn’t be a tragedy.

* * *

Two class periods pass, along with two and a half hours, and Alex still doesn’t have the slightest clue what he’s going to tell his friends. Assuming neither Reggie nor Luke had texted the girls, which was about 50/50 either way, they were the only two that knew about the existence of Willie. 

Alex enters the cafeteria and heads to the table the second from the back that Luke had claimed as theirs back in grade 9. As he approaches, he sees Julie and Flynn had beat him there.

“So, I was thinking about doing a black skirt with my leopard shorts underneath, but I don’t know what to put on top.” Alex hears Flynn say as he approaches.

Julie smiles and nods enthusiastically. “That skirt and shorts combo is killer! And what about your hot pink cheetah sweater for the top?”

Flynn turns to Julie so she’s looking at her dead on. “Julie, you are a genius!” Flynn then straightens herself and catches sight of Alex. “Oh, hey Alex!”

“Hey,” Alex greets, sitting down across from the girls. “What’re you planning your outfit for?”

“I have a chemistry test tomorrow and I’m not too sure about it, so I’m gonna dress to kill and hope the confidence transfers,” Flynn explains, with Julie nodding along.

“Okay…” Alex nods, not fully understanding, but figures he can’t comment because he wears his pink hoodie at least twice a week. “Good luck on your test. I would offer to help but science has never really been my thing.”

“Thanks! And it’s chill, I got Jules here and I can always ask Reggie.”

Then, almost as if he were summoned, Reggie sits down at the table with Luke in tow. “Ask me what?”

Flynn explains it’s for chemistry help and, after Reggie responds positively, there’s a bit of a break in the conversation while the boys pull out their lunches. Once everyone’s eaten something, the silence is quickly broken by Luke.

“So, Alex,” Luke turns to Alex with one of the biggest shit-eating grins Alex has ever seen on him – and that’s including the one he saw when Luke suggested they egg their ex-bandmate’s car after he stole Luke’s songbook. “Who’s this guy you met?”

Clearly, neither Luke nor Reggie texted the girls because then they both start talking over each other.

“What guy?”

“You met someone?!”

“Do we know him?”

“When?”

Alex takes a deep breath and mentally curses Luke for his, potentially intentional, lack of tact. “Yes, I met someone. His name is Willie, he ran into me yesterday before I left the rink. He plays on a rep hockey team and I think we’re getting coffee together tomorrow night?”

Luke hits Alex across the chest. “Dude, you didn’t say this morning that you’re going out for coffee. What the hell, man?” Alex shoots him a look that he hopes conveys _that’s really not the point right now_. He thinks it either gets lost in translation or Luke fully ignores it since Luke’s expression doesn’t change.

“Is he hot?” Reggie chimes in.

“Oh my god, Reg,” Alex feels his face heat up and immediately knows he’s doing his best impression of a tomato.

Luke’s Cheshire Cat-esque grin returns. “So that’s a yes!”

“Okay, maybe he is really hot, but he’s also a hockey player so there’s a really good chance he’s straight.”

“Ah yes, hockey ass,” Flynn says, with her and Julie nodding sagely, blatantly ignoring the second half of Alex’s statement.

“Not the point, guys!”

Luke raises his eyebrows. “Oh really? Because what I’m hearing is a ‘really hot’ boy asked you out for coffee tomorrow.”

“He didn’t ‘ask me out’,” Alex corrects, complete with air quotes. “He ran into me, asked if I was timekeeping on Tuesday, and offered to buy me a coffee as an apology for knocking me over when I said I was. That’s it. No dates, no asking out.” Alex refuses to get his hopes up about this. He knows how homophobic hockey culture is, and even if he didn’t, he’s heard enough players yell the f-slur within earshot of his booth to be wary.

“Wait, hold on, go back,” Julie says, leaning forward on the table. “You told him you were working tomorrow? Alex, you haven’t worked a Tuesday in months.”

“I panicked, okay?” Alex raises his hands in mock surrender. “At that moment, I didn’t care about anything but being able to see him again. The lights could’ve gone out in the rink again and I don’t think I would’ve noticed.” Alex looks up to see each of his friends staring at him. “What?!”

“Dude,” Luke says, chuckling quietly, “you are _so_ gone for this guy.”

Alex’s first reaction is to deny it, but then he remembers how sincere Willie was, how quickly he was able to joke around with Alex – who calls someone hotdog as soon as they met them? – and that smile Alex would burn a city down for.

“Oh god,” Alex spits out, dropping his head into his arms on the table. “I’m so screwed.” He feels Luke sling his arm over his shoulders.

“Not all hope is lost, though,” Reggie pipes up from the other side of Luke. “Clearly the guy wants to see you again, he was the one who asked after all. So, there’s got to be something going on on his end too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t ask every stranger I run into to hangout later.”

“Reggie’s got a really good point,” Julie chimes in, and Alex raises his head so he can look at her. “So, assuming you still want to go out with him…” Julie pauses, waiting for confirmation from Alex. Alex hesitates, does he still want to see Willie? He seemed nice and Alex does feel like he wants to get to know him, but he could see at least a hundred different ways this could go unbelievably wrong.

Luke rubs his arm along Alex’s back. “That’s your overthinking face, Alex, talk us through it.”

“Okay,” Alex takes a deep breath and gathers his thoughts. “Okay, so I think I do. He seems really sweet, he’s funny, and he’s really easy to talk to.” He looks up at Julie and Flynn, who both nod encouragingly. “But it seems almost too good to be true. There’s no way he meant it as a date, probably just felt bad for knocking me over. And even if he did, which is slim to none, I’ll probably mess it all up because I can barely think around the guy.”

“By the sounds of it, you didn’t think around him at all the first time you met, and he still wants to hang out again so…” Reggie interjects.

“Alex, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Julie says, ignoring Reggie. “But by the sounds of it, I think you’ll regret it if you don’t. It sounds like you already like him.”

Alex nods slowly, then realizes Julie is absolutely right. He might still be able to see the hundreds of bad outcomes, but he will always wonder what could’ve happened. “Okay, yeah, I’ll go.”

Julie nods like she was expecting him to agree all along, which she probably was. “Great! Now one problem, you need to actually get a shift on Tuesday.”

Alex groans in response. He totally forgot about that, and it’s kind of a major problem. He pulls out his phone to see who has that shift and hopes that whoever it is is free to take Alex’s Thursday shift instead. As he’s doing that, the conversation moves on to what Mrs. Harrison chose as the cumulative project in Julie and Flynn’s music class. Julie and Flynn are still juniors, so this happens occasionally since the boys get curious about if anything changed in the music program between the years. From what Alex can catch while he’s texting Nick about the schedule shift, the music assignment hadn’t changed at all and Luke and Reggie were already offering to provide guitar and bass tracks. Alex looks up as he’s putting his phone on the table, and says he’d be free to record some drums as well.

“You guys are the best,” Julie says smiling at them, her eyes catching on Luke’s for a few moments longer than the rest.

The rest of lunch passes without fanfare, and they all start to pack up before the bell rings.

“So, just to confirm, we’re all still good for rehearsal at mine tonight, right?” Julie asks. They have an important gig in the next coming weeks that they’ve been rehearsing nonstop for, and today is no exception.

Luke smiles while getting up from the table. “All good on my end, boss.”

“You betcha!” Reggie adds.

“All good with me,” Alex says. Just when he is about to pick up his phone from the table, it lights up with a text from Nick that reads ‘ _Yeah, no prob, Thurs is better for me anyway. I’ll email in the shift change._ ’

Alex takes a deep breath. Okay. Okay. He’s actually doing this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading!! feel free to hmu on tumblr @[reversedscene](https://reversedscene.tumblr.com/) i'm always looking for friends here :)
> 
> (also hockey butts are 100% a thing  
> [here's an actual ad with nhler dylan larkin](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Wlv_3JJYnEo))


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you guys so much for all of your comments and kudos, it means SO much to me <3  
> a little life update for all of you, after saying i wasn’t going to do a masters degree for four years, i changed my mind and so the past week of my life has been super stressful with starting my final semester of my undergrad and planning out applications etc. thank you all for being so patient with me
> 
> and now, on to the not-date!!

The last 24 hours had passed almost in a haze for Alex, with any free time in his day being consumed by thinking about his coffee meetup with Willie. The only time it wasn’t running in the back of his head was at rehearsal. Calming his anxiety and quieting his thoughts was one of the reasons he began drumming, and Alex is thankful it still has the ability to do that, unlike many of his anxiety techniques from when he was younger. As of right now, he’s trying his best to not think about it when the bus Alex is on arrives at the community centre and Alex gets off.

It’s a light night in terms of games for the rink – it is a Tuesday after all – with only a couple university intramural games and Willie’s game. It’s about 15 minutes before the first game starts, so Alex heads to his booth to boot up the scoreboard after checking in. His English teacher had assigned them to read all of Act III of Othello by Thursday, so Alex pulls out his copy to get started.

The intramural games pass without fanfare, and, before Alex knows it, it’s time for Willie’s game. Alex didn’t see them leave, or come back, for dryland warmup, although that’s not odd considering how Alex was reading consistently for the past two games. The refs step out onto the ice with the two teams quickly following. Alex finds himself looking around the home team side of the rink for Willie, but his view is quickly obscured by the backup goalie warming up by his booth.

The two minutes of warmup quickly play out and the opening lines line up for the first faceoff. Alex still hasn’t seen Willie, and he realizes he doesn’t even know what position Willie plays – he could be the starting goalie for all Alex knew. The referee drops the puck, Alex starts the clock, and the boys are off. The Phantoms win the draw, and that’s all Alex sees before he tries to get back to his book.

All in all, the first period is uneventful, barring the one sighting Alex has of Willie – who appears to be some form of forward position, and a goal for the other team. As the teams are setting up for the second period opening faceoff, the Phantoms’ right winger turns towards Alex and waves. He registers that it’s Willie, with that gorgeous smile gracing his face behind his helmet’s cage, and just barely manages to wave back before the puck drops.

In the next second, the teams are off, and all Alex can think about is Willie’s hair flying behind him as he skates. It’s a shock that Alex had missed him before – he can’t take his eyes off him now. A second later, Willie is hit from behind into the boards and Alex cringes in sympathy. A penalty is quickly called on the visiting team and the player heads to the penalty box as Willie gets up far too slowly for Alex’s liking.

“Number 5, minor penalty, checking from behind,” the ref says to Alex, as the player slams the penalty box door beside Alex. After he’s marked that down and inputted the penalty into the time clock, he looks up to see that Willie has already made it back to his bench. The bench is too far away for Alex to see which one of the players is Willie, so he now has absolutely no idea how he’s doing or if he got seriously injured and left for the dressing room.

Luckily, Willie doesn’t miss a shift and is back out on the ice in a couple minutes. Now knowing that Willie is okay, Alex turns back to his book since he still has a couple scenes to finish reading. However, he finds himself reading the next page without having absorbed anything, getting distracted from thinking of Willie’s hair or seeing Willie get slammed into the boards over again. Alex puts down his book, giving up for the night, and looks back at the play just in time to see three Phantoms forwards streaking towards the opposing net.

The one with the puck dekes around the lone defenceman while breaking into the opposing zone, creating a 3 on none. There’s a couple passes between them before the centreman passes to the right wing who fires the puck right at the net, past the goalie and going top shelf. As the Phantoms celebrate, the goalscorer points to Alex’s booth, or at least Alex thinks he does since there’s nothing else around him but the empty penalty boxes. Alex acknowledges that it was a very pretty goal as he stops the clock and adds the goal to the scoreboard, hoping that the heat in his cheeks isn’t as obvious as he thinks since one of the refs is skating towards his booth.

“29 from 16 and 87.” She says. Alex nods and the ref skates away.

As Alex is marking the goal into the game sheet, he takes a look at which one of Willie’s teammates scored. When he reaches #29, he sees the name _William Shear_ beside it. Suddenly, the pointing-at-the-timekeeper celly makes a lot more sense.

The rest of the second passes without fanfare. The third flies by as well, with the Phantoms scoring a sloppy goal from the crease midway through which brings the score to 2-1 Phantoms. At the final buzzer, both teams go to congratulate their goalies and line up to shake hands. As the Phantoms start to leave the ice, 29 – Willie – turns around and waves to Alex, who smiles waves back right before Willie gets off the ice. _Not a date, this is absolutely not a date_ , Alex reminds himself.

Alex packs up his stuff in the booth as the Zamboni drives out onto the ice and he heads out to the lobby. He makes it through the crowd of parents and up to the snack bar where Julie is doing homework.

“Hey Julie, how’s it going?”

Julie looks up from her notebook and smiles. “Good, good, Tuesdays are always quiet. What about you? How was the game?”

“It was good, Willie scored! One-timer top shelf, you should’ve seen it.” Alex readjusts his fanny pack on his shoulder, pulling his pink sweater strings out from under the strap.

“That’s great Alex! You ready for your coffee date?” Julie says, with a massive smile.

Alex feels his cheeks heat up as he scrambles for a response. “It’s not a date, Julie! Just two guys grabbing coffee together after running into each other a couple days before… Okay, yeah that sounds like a date, but it’s not!” Alex exclaims, before continuing on quietly. “I don’t want to get my hopes up on this. I don’t think I could take it, Julie.”

“Oh, Alex.” Julie’s face twists from her huge grin to something akin to sympathetic. “I totally get it. Date or not, I think you’ll enjoy it. You did say he seemed really nice.”

Alex takes a moment to breathe. “Okay, yeah, you’re absolutely right. How’s, uh,” He looks over at Julie’s textbook. “How’s calculus going for you?”

“I am going to kill the derivative quotient rule, but other than that, pretty okay.” She responds, oddly upbeat for someone who suggested murdering a mathematical concept. Some players, clearly from the recent game, start coming out of the rink with their gear on their shoulders. “Does Willie know you’re out here or does he expect to find you at your booth?”

“Oh crap, thanks, Julie!” Alex says as he goes back into the rink.

“No problem, have fun!” Alex hears Julie yell behind him before the doors to the rink close. Sure enough, just as Julie thought, Alex can see a figure with a hockey bag slung over their shoulder and a pair of sticks in hand halfway around the rink heading towards the timekeeper’s booth.

“Willie!” Alex calls once he’s gotten a little closer. The figure turns to reveal Willie with that gorgeous smile gracing his face.

“Hey, Alex! How’d you enjoy the game?” Willie asks, coming closer to Alex. He’s wearing a cream sweater and jeans, with his hair tied back in a bun like it was the last time, except his hair is clearly wet this time.

“Great! That was a really pretty goal you scored.” Willie bits his lip while still smiling and his cheeks colour slightly. _God, his lips are pretty,_ crosses Alex’s mind before he realizes he might be staring and immediately looks back up at Willie’s eyes.

“I mean yeah, Dante did all the work though. He’s got real silky mitts.” Willie shrugs while chuckling slightly.

Alex’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Silky mitts?”

“Good hands? Really good stick handler.” Alex would feel embarrassed if it wasn’t for the smile on Willie’s face. “You, uh, you really don’t know a lot of hockey terms, do you?”

Alex shakes his head while fiddling with his fanny pack. “Not at all, I’ve never played a game in my life. I can barely skate.”

“That’s cool, hotdog, it just means I can teach you.” Alex is momentarily distracted by the thought of Willie holding both of his hands while skating around a rink with him and how much he would like that. _Not a date, this is not a date_ , Alex reminds himself. “Anyway, you good with heading out now, man?”

“Okay, yeah. Let’s go!” They both turn and walk out to the lobby beside each other. As they pass the snack bar, Alex looks over at Julie who raises two thumbs up and mouths _good luck_. Alex smiles at her and is unbelievably grateful that only Julie is working since she’s the only one with any form of tact or subtlety in their group.

“You don’t mind if we take my car, right? Normally we could walk, but it’s colder than I expected and my hair’s still wet from the shower,” Willie says, shifting his sticks to his other hand, so he can look at Alex.

“Oh yeah, no problem.” Alex has a brief thought of _oh no, I’m gonna get murdered_ before shaking himself out of it.

“Sweet, thanks.” They exit the community center and Willie gestures to a small blue car parked ahead of them. “That’s my ride.”

Alex glances over at Willie and is definitely not distracted by the warm light from the setting sun giving Willie a halo. “All your gear fits in that?”

Willie laughs, and Alex isn’t sure if he believes in God but he’s absolutely sure that Willie is an angel since his laugh is heavenly.

“Took me a while to figure it, but I guarantee it does. And I don’t even have to run my sticks through to the front seats!” Sure enough, when they get to the car, Willie fits his gear and suit bag in the trunk and his sticks in the backseat.

“It’s a good thing you’re not a goalie.” Alex laughs, and Willie voices his agreement as they both get into the car.

Willie puts the car in gear and backs out of the parking space before speaking. “So, I was thinking about going to Eats and Beats, if that’s good with you?” Alex immediately feels a little more at ease once he hears that.

“Yeah, that works with me! My band has played there a bunch, it’s a nice place.”

Willie glances at Alex quickly before turning back to the road. “Dude, you’re in a band? That’s so cool!”

Alex feels his cheeks heat up. “It’s really not as cool as it sounds. It’s just a thing me and my friends do.”

“You’ve played at Eats and Beats multiple times. Not gonna lie, man, but that sounds a little more than ‘just a thing you and your friends do’.”

“I mean, yeah, I guess. It still only feels like jamming with them.” That’s one of the things Alex really appreciates about the band, even as their gigs got bigger or more frequent, they were still just them. It still feels like it did when he and the boys were 14 and ran into Julie in the music room.

“Isn’t that exactly how you want it to be? Even when you guys get big, don’t you want it to still be about playing with each other and not the fame?” Willie has one hand on the wheel and the other rest on the center console looking totally at ease. Alex thinks of how easy it’d be to take his spare hand, then snaps himself out of it. _Not a date, this is not a date_ , which is apparently his mantra of the day.

Willie asks about their most recent gig and they’re pulling into the parking lot as Alex tells a story of how Luke tripped on a cable because he was staring at Julie. They get out of the car and join the line in the café.

“They sound like a good group.”

“They really are, I don’t know where I’d be without them.” Soon, they’re called up to the front of the line. Willie moves forward, then stops and waves Alex with him when he realizes Alex isn’t following.

“C’mon, hotdog, I told you it’s my treat for running you over.” This gets Alex moving up to the front as well. He doesn’t fully catch Willie’s order, but it was long and sounded more sugar than drink.

The barista looks over at Alex. “Uh, just a tea with milk please.”

She nods, heading back to make the drinks, while Willie turns to Alex. “Just a tea with milk, huh? Straitlaced, I like it.”

Alex shrugs. “I have anxiety, so there’s too much caffeine in coffee for me, but I still needed a quick pick me up for school, you know?”

The barista sets down their drinks, and Willie picks them up, thanking her, while also nodding along to Alex’s statement. They find a table and sit down across from each other.

“That’s enough about me though, the only thing I really know about you is you have a car and play for the Phantoms.” Alex prompts.

“Oh yeah, totally! I started playing ages ago. My mom’s Canadian, so she insisted I learned how to skate as soon as I could walk. I grew up there actually, in small-town Ontario.” Willie chuckles to himself. “It was quite the change moving to LA.”

Alex nods, he’s never known anything but LA, but he can imagine that the constant lights and noise would be difficult to get used to if you were from a small town. “When did you move?”

Willie takes a sip of his drink before recoiling from it. “You would think I would learn to let hot drinks cool for a little,” he says, seemingly to himself before looking up at Alex. “I was 13. I was almost inconsolable when mom first told me because I didn’t think somewhere so warm all the time would have a hockey team. As soon as I found out they did and that the weather meant I could skateboard all year round, I was a lot happier.”

“You really like things with a high risk of injury, don’t you?”

Willie winks at him, and Alex has no idea how to even begin processing that. “High risk, high reward, hotdog.” Willie shifts slightly in his seat, his face pinching for a moment before relaxing.

“Oh, I almost forgot, you got hit pretty bad in the first, are you alright?”

“Totally,” Willie brushes off. “It’s definitely going to bruise but nothing too bad. I really did get nailed, didn’t I?”

Alex blows on his tea before taking a sip and then nods. “You did, I thought you were going to be taken out of the game.”

“It’s gonna take a lot more to take me out of the game, don’t you worry.” Willie smiles, taking a sip of his now-cooled-off drink.

“Still, you should at least _try_ to be safe.” Alex had seen enough hockey games to know exactly how rough they can get and, what can he say, he’s a worrier by nature.

“I’m as safe as I can be,” Willie laughs a little. “Besides, my stepdad is my coach anyway, I couldn’t hide an injury even if I wanted to.”

Alex unconsciously pulls his hoodie sleeves up his forearms a bit, a leftover habit he hasn’t been able to crack yet, revealing most of his bracelets. Willie’s eyes catch on his right wrist – where the rainbow friendship bracelet Julie had made him for Christmas currently sits – and Alex isn’t entirely sure, but he thinks Willie tries to hide a smile.

“That must be tough, having him as your coach. I can’t imagine any of our parents being, like, the manager of the band.” In fact, the more Alex thinks about that, the scarier it sounds. The only one he’d trust is Julie’s dad, Ray, but even he’s on thin ice.

“It’s definitely interesting.” Willie pauses to take a sip of his drink. “He’s a little overprotective but he’s generally alright. He’s been a coach for as long as I’ve known him, so at least he knows what he’s talking about.”

From there, the conversation flows naturally with both of them trading stories about their team or band respectively, and Willie only has to explain a couple more hockey terms to Alex. They’re only interrupted when Alex gets a text from Julie asking how his ‘not-date’ went and Alex notices how late it has got and that they’ve spent at least two hours together. He relays the time to Willie, and both of them make their way out of the café.

“Do you need a ride home?” Willie asks once they’re outside.

“No, I’m alright, I live around the corner.” Alex gestures over his shoulder in the vague direction of his house. “I can easily walk back.”

“Sounds good,” Willie smiles. “I won’t give you a ride on one condition: I get your number and you text me when you make it home?”

“Okay, yeah,” Alex responds in what he hopes is a chill tone because Willie not only asked for his number but also implied that he’d like to talk to Alex again.

“Sweet!” Willie pulls out his phone and unlocks it, passing it over. Alex looks down at the phone to see that the contact name has already been filled out as _Hotdog_ followed by the hotdog emoji. He laughs while inputting his number and double-checks his typing before handing back the phone to Willie.

Willie fusses with his phone a little after getting it back before putting it back in his pocket. A moment later, Alex feels his phone vibrate and assumes the fussing was Willie texting him.

When Willie looks up again, he seems almost bashful before speaking. “I really enjoyed tonight.”

Alex smiles and nods. “Me too.”

Willie nods smiling. “Have a good night, Alex. Text me when you get home.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Willie looks like he’s going to turn around, but then hesitates and bites his lip. Instead, he leans up and kisses Alex on the cheek. Alex immediately feels his cheeks heat up and wishes it was cold enough to blame it on the weather.

Willie flashes a small smile, that Alex returns, before turning and heading back to his car. Alex takes a deep breath before turning the other way and beginning the walk home. Before he gets very far, however, his phone buzzes again. Alex pulls it out to see two unread texts from an unknown number:

_hey, it’s willie  
_

_sorry, couldn’t wait to get home to text you :)_

Alex realizes that he might have been wrong for the past few days. That was definitely a date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the phantoms are 100% an actual hockey team but they’re an ahl team in leigh valley but they're orange not purple unfortunately :(  
> willie’s last name shear apparently means a happy or cheerful person which i think fits pretty good
> 
> as always, please hmu on tumblr @[reversedscene](https://reversedscene.tumblr.com/) :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, thank you all for the support on this fic, it means the world to me <3
> 
> also i don’t know if you’ve realized it yet but i do not know anything about the geography/climate of LA, so if you’re familiar, please suspend your disbelief

Alex is ecstatic about how well this thing with Willie is going. They had been texting almost constantly in two days since their date. Alex still can’t really believe that was actually a date, but he’s so happy it was. They haven’t seen each other since; there hasn’t been time between the band rehearsing for their gig, team practices, and school. Alex is a little bummed about it, but the gig is fast approaching so that takes most of his attention. As it stands right now, they’re all walking to the studio after school, sans Flynn who has a massive project to finish for first period tomorrow and claims, correctly, that she’d be too busy jamming out at rehearsal to be productive.

They’ve almost made it when Alex’s phone buzzes in his pocket. He slows down his pace to pull it out of his pocket.

_ From: Willie <3 _

_ (3:09 pm) so you mean you’ve never screamed in the rink after everyone’s gone??? _

_ (3:09 pm) you should, it’s real cathartic _

_ (3:10 pm) also you still good for today? _

Alex smiles. He can’t help but be endeared by Willie’s antics, although he doesn’t fully know how Willie managed to stay in the community centre after it’s been closed for the night. He quickly types out a response.

_ To: Willie <3 _

_ (3:11 pm) I don’t even want to know how you managed that _

_ (3:11 pm) And yeah, I can’t wait to see you :) _

_ From: Willie <3 _

_ (3:12 pm) me neither hotdog _

_ (3:12 pm) have fun at band practice, i’ll see you after!! _

“Ooooh who you texting, Alex?” Luke says, popping up beside Alex.

“Jesus, Luke, you scared me.”

“Are you texting Willie?” He responds, drawing out Willie’s name. Alex feels his cheeks heat up and he stumbles out a denial. “Alex, man, chill. We’re all happy for you. Plus, Julie says he’s cute!” Luke wiggles his eyebrows.

“Oh my god, Luke, you look ridiculous. Besides, you might see him today, he’s picking me up for a date.” At Alex’s revelation, Luke’s mouth drops open.

“Dude, why didn’t you tell us before!” He turns and yells to Reggie ahead of them. “Hey Reg, we’re meeting Willie today!”

Julie and Reggie stop walking and the latter turns around. 

“Why didn’t you tell us, Alex? We gotta prepare!” To Alex’s surprise, Reggie sounds almost offended or disappointed, Alex can’t tell.

“Prepare what? And you’ll just barely see him, we’ll probably be done by the time Willie comes round.” Once Alex and Luke catch up to the other two, they all continue walking.

“We gotta make sure he’s good enough for you, man.”

“Can’t have a subpar guy dating our Alex.”

“Guys,” Julie says shaking her head with a fond smile on her face. “Leave Alex alone. I’m sure he’ll introduce us officially when he’s ready. In the meantime, we got a gig to rehearse for!” They had arrived at the Molina’s garage and Julie pulls open the double doors.

Julie was right, they did have a gig to rehearse for, and the four of them quickly set up and get started. Almost immediately, Alex loses himself the beat and the feeling of playing. It’s a great rehearsal, all of them are killing it. Luke and Julie are connecting on a new level on every song – _chemistry with everyone, my ass_ – and Reggie improvises an amazing bass solo in one of their new songs.

There’s a knock on the door during a transition between songs near the end of their planned set. All three of his bandmates turn to stare at Alex. Alex looks over to see Luke mouths something that looks like _Is that Willie?!_

The person outside knocks again.

“Oh my god, Alex, go let him in!” Julie says, gesturing to the door.

“Okay, yeah. Yeah, I can do that,” Alex takes a breath and reassures himself that the next 15 minutes will go smoothly. He gets up, walking around his drums, and opens the door to reveal Willie who’s in a tie-dye crop top with a backpack slung over his shoulder.

“Willie, hey! You look amazing.” Alex is surprised he gets out a full sentence because his mind is just replaying _he’s in a crop top, he’s in a crop top, he’s in a crop top_. “We still have a couple songs to go, do you mind waiting in here while we finish up? It shouldn’t take too long.”

“Thanks, and yeah, totally!” Willie follows Alex into the studio. Willie looks around and his gaze lands on the band. A charming smile graces his face, and he says, “You guys must Julie, Luke, and Reggie. I’m Willie! It’s great to meet you guys, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Luke and Reggie both start talking over each other.

“Alex, you told Willie about us?”

“If it was that time I fixed my amp in the rain, it’s a lot better than it sounds.”

“Guys!” Julie interjects. “First of all, no Reggie, that’s just as bad as it sounds. Second, hi Willie, it’s a pleasure to meet you too.”

Alex awkwardly gestures to the couch. “I swear we won’t be long, but you can just chill here if you want – or anywhere you want really – just watch out for stray swinging guitars.”

Willie laughs and claps Alex on the shoulder. “The couch sounds great, hotdog.”

Once Willie settles in, Alex makes it back to his drums, and Luke stops mouthing _hotdog?_ at him, Alex counts them back in. The four of them get right back into the groove they were in before Willie arrived, but Alex finds he has to keep pulling his gaze away from Willie; if the boy makes his heart skips a beat, Alex doesn’t want to learn what he might do to his drumming. The unfortunate downside to this is that Alex has absolutely no idea how Willie is reacting to the songs. 

Julie finishes her final line in _Finally Free_ , smiling back at the boys. All of them are suddenly thrown out of their little band bubble by Willie clapping and cheering over on the couch.

“Guys, that was amazing!” Willie beams at them. “How have you guys not blown up yet?”

Julie laughs. “We’re working on it, trust me.”

“We got a pretty big gig coming up, we’re hoping that’ll finally be our break,” Luke chimes in, putting his guitar away.

“Well, you guys are gonna kill it, if the past few songs are any indication.” Willie’s eyes flit over all of them, finally catching on Alex’s. “Seriously, you’re fantastic.”

“So, Willie, Alex was saying –“

“Okay, that’s enough!” Alex says, interrupting Reggie. He has no idea where Reggie was going with that, but he’s told him too much about Willie for that. “I don’t want to be late for whatever Willie has planned, we’re gonna head out.”

Alex walks out from behind his kit, picking up his fanny pack on his way to the couch.

“It’s not really a timed thing, Alex, we can wait a few minutes –“ Willie starts before he also gets cut off.

“No, no, it’s fine. You got everything you need? C’mon, let’s go.” Alex doesn’t wait for an answer before he’s grabbing Willie’s hand and practically pulling him out of the studio.

The pair of them are a few blocks down the road before Alex stops and turns to Willie.

“Hey, sorry about that, it was uncalled for.” Alex gets more and more uncertain as he continues talking. “I just know they can be a little much, and I didn’t want to scare you off?”

“Dude, it’s no big, I get it. I got my bag and board so no harm no foul, yeah?” Willie shifts slightly as he talks, readjusting his bag and attached skateboard, and that’s when Alex looks down and realizes they’re still holding hands. His face heats and he goes to pull away, but Willie tightens his grip. Alex looks up at Willie to see a small smile on his face. “We can totally let go if you want to, but I’m perfectly happy like this.”

Alex feels his heart in his throat as he manages to nod. He takes a breath and retightens his grip.

“So, where are we going?”

Willie starts to walk again, tugging a little on Alex’s hand to get him moving as well.

“You mentioned really liking the beach, so I was thinking we could go take a walk down there and maybe grab something at the pier?”

Alex smiles. Willie was right, he does like the beach. It was a great way to hang out with Reggie without going to either of their houses when they were younger, and Alex will always remember the hours they spent playing in the sand. Alex thanks his lucky stars that Julie lives semi-close to the beach before responding to Willie.

“That sounds perfect. There’s a great little pizza joint down there we could hit up.”

“Sweet! Also, I meant to ask, are Julie and Luke together? Because if they aren’t, they absolutely should be.”

Alex smiles and rolls his eyes. “Oh my god, I know right! They’re not, but that’s only because they’ve managed to convince themselves that the other doesn’t like them, despite the fact that even the astronauts on the ISS can see it.”

Willie laughs in response, and Alex decides he’s going to spend as long as he can trying to hear that sound again.

* * *

The date, which Alex actually knows is a date now, is going perfectly in his opinion. They have been at the beach for a couple hours now, filling the time by switching dumb stories back and forth. Alex tells Willie about the time he had to sit on the handlebars of Luke’s bike so they wouldn’t both be late to class, which happened at a much older age than Alex would’ve liked. In return, Willie tells him about when he went skateboarding the morning of a hockey tryout and almost missed it because he fell and had to go to the ER.

“Yeah, Caleb was not pleased with me that day,” Willie says, laughing at the memory. “Gave me this huge lecture about how I needed to take this seriously – as if I wasn’t already – and how the team is more important than any of my ‘leisure activities’, as if hockey isn’t a leisure activity itself.”

“Yeah, that’s a bit much. My mom and dad used to say the same about school, saying I was spending too much time with the band, but I don’t think school and hockey is a fair comparison here.” In fact, up until Alex came out to them, they were still trying to make that argument, with his dad even going as far as to blame the band for his gayness.

“Exactly! Like I’d understand if the NHL were even in the picture for me, but it’s definitely not. Caleb’s always been kind of intense about this sort of thing.” Alex’s stomach growls just then, and Willie pulls out his phone to check the time. “Oh yeah, I guess it is dinner time. You mentioned a pizza place earlier, right?”

Any embarrassment Alex had alleviates immediately. “Yeah, it’s just a little way down here and across the road.”

“Sweet! Your parents won’t mind if you’re gone for dinner, will they?” Willie asks, concerned.

Alex shakes his head. Even if his parents did, which they probably don’t anymore, Alex would much rather be with Willie, and Alex tells him as much.

Willie seems to pick up on the change in Alex’s tone and his eyebrows knit together. “Anymore? You don’t have to tell me, obviously, but it sounds like something big happened there.”

Alex takes a breath, looking at his feet in the sand. He doesn’t know if he wants to see the pity in Willie’s eyes after he tells him, but he hopes this thing with Willie lasts and this is kind of a big important thing. Plus, Willie already knows he’s gay, so it’s not like Alex has to worry about coming out.

“I, uh, came out to my parents a little over a month ago, and they weren’t exactly the most accepting.” Willie stops almost dead in the sand and Alex quickly tries to reassure him. “They didn’t kick me out or anything, like, I can still go home. They just don’t really talk to me anymore, so dinners can get a little awkward.”

“Alex…” Willie sounds heartbroken and that’s exactly what Alex wanted to avoid. Alex looks up at Willie finally, and sees his eyebrows are pulled together and there’s new tension in his jaw.

“Seriously, it’s fine. Let’s just go get pizza, okay?” Alex says, wanting to move past this as painlessly as possible.

“Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Just one thing first, I know we haven’t known each other for very long, and I know I really shouldn’t say this, but fuck your parents, alright? Fuck anyone who thinks differently of you just because of who you love.” Willie looks so unbelievably sincere that Alex can’t help but smile despite everything.

“It took me years to unlearn the shit they taught me, and you’re right – fuck ‘em.” Alex laughs, and that seems to break the tension with Willie joining in quickly.

“Pizza?” Alex prompts, once they’ve calmed down. Willie nods and they set off down the beach again.

“Did I tell you about the time I ate, like, half a jar of those dried pepper flakes they leave on the table at pizza joints?” Willie muses.

Alex snorts. “No? Do I want to know?”

“Eh, there’s only so many times you can gather 17 boys in a restaurant without some dumb bet starting.” Alex nods, he knows what he, Luke, and Reggie get up to when Julie or Flynn aren’t around and that’s just the three of them. “I think I was 8 then, it was like my first or second year in rep hockey. Now we shoot hot sauce, which still isn’t great, but nothing was as bad as the half a jar of pepper flakes.”

“Remind me to never bet with you on anything.”

“It’s not that bad.” Willie defends. “Plus, you can’t convince me you and your friends haven’t done anything stupid. Didn’t Reggie say something about fixing an amp in the rain? Even I know that’s a bad idea.”

“I never claimed we were any better, just saying I’m never betting with you.” Alex responds with a laugh.

They crossed the street to the pizza place and Alex holds the door open for Willie. They both walk up to the counter.

“What do you want?” Alex asks. Willie pulls a face. “Hey, no, you got last time, it’s my turn.”

Willie still doesn’t look pleased but he concedes. “Fine. Hawaiian, please.”

“Bold,” Alex remarks before relaying their order to the cashier.

“Please don’t tell me you’re one of those assholes who will debate about pineapple’s place on pizza,” Willie pleads, as they get their food and sit down at a table by the front window.

“Nah, Reggie likes it too, so I’ve had my fair share during movie nights. None of us can say no to Reggie, so we get them every time.”

Willie laughs and then leads into a story about how it’s like that with his goalie too, although it’s apparently less because of who he is and more because he’s saved their butts during games too many times.

* * *

Before Alex knows it, they’ve finished their dinner and the night is closing in. Willie turns to Alex just after they leave the restaurant.

“The sun’s about to set, want to find a good spot and watch it?” Willie gestures to the beach and Alex smiles.

“That sounds perfect, Willie.”

A few minutes later, they’re settling into the sand. Alex cringes slightly as he sits, knowing he’ll be finding sand in his back pockets for weeks, but is perfectly okay with that given it means more time with Willie. Once they’re both comfortable, with their legs stretched out in front of them and sitting closer than is probably necessary, Willie reaches his hand out and grabs Alex’s.

“I had a lot of fun tonight, hotdog,” Willie says, looking at Alex. Alex bites his lip and nods, dropping his gaze from the sky to their feet. He doesn’t know how he missed them before, but Willie’s very clearly wearing socks covered in a flame pattern.

“Wait,” Alex starts without thinking. “If you call me hotdog because I was wearing hotdog socks when we met, does that mean I can call you hot because yours have flames?” 

As soon as Alex registers what he said, he feels his cheeks flush and his gaze snaps to Willie. Willie, however, doesn’t look upset at what Alex said. In fact, he looks a little in shock and there’s definitely more colour in his cheeks and the tips of his ears. After a few seconds, he seems to snap himself out of it and smiles.

“You can call me hot whenever you want to, hotdog.”

“Oh yeah, I’ll, uh, definitely keep that in mind.” Alex takes a breath and tries to remember what Willie said before the whole calling-him-hot thing. “I had a really good time today too.”

They both smile at each other, then turn to watch the sunset in relative silence, legs touching and hands connected. Once the sun has almost fully set, they get up knowing there’s barely half an hour before darkness fully falls and they still need to get home. Hand in hand, they make their way back the way they came. They quickly reach where they need to split up, Willie to wherever he lives and Alex to the studio where he’ll be staying for the night.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” Alex asks.

“Yeah, totally.” Willie smiles up at him, and Alex can’t help himself anymore. He grabs Willie’s jaw, pulling him in with the hand not tangled in Willie’s.

“Is this okay?” Alex whispers. Willie nods in response, so Alex closes his eyes and kisses him. He feels Willie’s grip on his hand tighten and his other hand move to his hip as Willie kisses him back. Alex could die right here, right now and he would perfectly happy with his decisions. They pull away much quicker than Alex would like, but considering they're on a random street corner near the beach, Alex doesn’t know why he expected any more than that.

Willie looks up at him, smiling, then squeezes his hand once before letting go. “Text me when you get home, yeah?”

Alex nods. “You too. Have a good night.”

“You too, hotdog,” Willie says and grabs his skateboard off his backpack, placing it on the ground beside him before skating off down the road.

Alex pulls out his phone before leaving to let Julie know that he’ll be crashing in the studio. After he sends the message, he sees he has an unread message from a few hours ago.

_ From: Luke Patterson _

_ (4:13 pm) dude i don’t think willie stopped staring at you that entire time _

_ (4:13 pm) have fun on your date _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> working title of this chapter: how long can i make them hold hands while still working logistically
> 
> as always, hit up on tumblr :) @[reversedscene](https://reversedscene.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> once again, i cannot thank you guys enough for the reception of this fic, i'm so happy you guys all enjoy these idiots as much as i do
> 
> two things here: one, for anyone who knows the ins and outs of USA/LA minor hockey, i apologize if the age groups/skill levels do not match up, i'm using the ones from where i am.  
> two, you can pry adhd reggie from my cold dead hands (what? me projecting on another character in this series? never)
> 
> and now onto the fun :)

They’re halfway through their lunch period when Alex checks his phone for what must have been the hundredth time that day. There are no new messages, just like there haven’t been the last ninety-nine times – not including Flynn’s text to their group chat this morning which was just a photo of her holding a massive iced coffee accompanied by the text ‘ _gonna kill this test!!’_. She had killed the test, which she told them as soon as she got to their table, plunking down her lunch and the still-a-quarter-full iced coffee.

“Everything good, Alex?” Reggie says from beside Alex.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. Just waiting on a text. What were we talking about?” Alex brushes off while pocketing his phone.

“Well, I was just roasting Luke for still wearing cut muscle tees even though it’s February,” Flynn butts in. She leans forward on the table towards them, whispering conspiratorially, “Julie’s too busy staring at his arms to join – Ow!” She falls back in her seat and looks over at Julie betrayed, and Alex didn’t see it happen, but he’d bet his hi-hat to say that Julie just hit her.

“Seriously though, Alex. You good?” Reggie repeats. “You’re not usually this attached to your phone, and you’re checking it like every five minutes.”

Alex sighs. “I’m fine, just Willie hasn’t texted all day, and I’ve typically heard from him by now.”

Saying it out loud, Alex feels like a bit of an idiot. He’s used to overthinking everything – thanks, anxiety – but he didn’t expect it to manifest like this. Once he knows where someone falls in his life, he doesn’t tend to question it. Although, that’s probably where the confusion comes from. When Willie kissed his cheek, Alex was certain where he had fit into his life and the date last night only confirmed that. But now, after Alex hadn’t heard from him since, other than a _made it home safe, have a good night hotdog_ text last night, he was thrown back into the uncertainty.

“He’s probably just busy, he’d be in school right now too,” Luke suggests, and Alex takes a deep breath.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. It’s just weird. And I kissed him last night, but he kissed back, so I don’t think I scared him away.”

This reply causes all of his friends to explode in various forms of disbelief and excitement. In all the chaos, Alex only catches a couple phrases.

“Dude, you kissed him! Why didn’t you start with that – “

“Alex, that’s great – “

“Oh my god, I didn’t eve – “

“How was it, where – “

Alex holds up his hands, and all of them quiet down.

“Yes, I kissed him goodbye last night. Yes, I enjoyed it. Yes, he kissed me back. Will all of you please stop ignoring the fact that he’s stopped talking to me since?”

“Right, right, yeah,” Luke says, while the other three nod.

“I still think he’s just caught up in school. It’s just past noon, there’s still a lot of time.” Julie says, placing a hand on Alex’s arm across the table.

“Or he might have just forgotten,” Reggie chips in. Alex opens his mouth to quip back at him, but Reggie continues before he speaks. “You guys all know how often I forget to text you back, and I don’t mean anything bad by it – I just forget sometimes.”

Alex’s quip dies on his tongue, Reggie does do that a lot.

“Yeah, that’s also an option too.” Alex concedes.

“Besides,” Flynn says, with a grin on her face that is far too wide to be considered innocent. “We could always TP his house. Completely unrelated, do you know where he lives?”

“Flynn!” Reggie and Julie protest.

“No, no, go on.” Luke leans forward, resting his elbows on the table.

“Oh my god, guys. No, I don’t know where he lives. Even if I did, we’re not doing that. The most I’ve seen is his car.” Alex says, shaking his head.

“So, we can egg his car!”

“FLYNN!”

* * *

Somehow, Alex manages to make it through the rest of the day semi-normally. The rest of his classes all pass easily, with one being a homework period and the showing a movie. Even his worry about Willie subsides to the back of his mind after talking with everyone.

When the final bell of the day rings, Alex can’t wait to leave with everyone. Fridays are movie nights at Julie’s, an almost year-old tradition that had started accidentally, as most traditions do. It had begun with Reggie insisting they all watch the original _Star Wars_ trilogy as well as Episodes VII and VIII before seeing Episode IV, which had just premiered in theatres. Luke, never one to half-ass things, had said that if they’re going to watch five of eight, they might as well watch all of them – despite Reggie’s protests about the prequels.

Due to their mixed schedules at the rink, the only time that would work were Fridays, and they had all agreed to watch a couple each Friday until they were officially caught up. Afterwards, it had just kind of stuck. A couple months later, it had turned into a Tradition when Julie’s dad, Ray, had found out how bad the boys’ home lives were and declared the Friday movie nights as Molina Extended Family Dinner Night. Alex had to admit the name probably needed work since it’s a bit of a mouthful, but Reggie had teared up when he first heard it and said in a whisper, “You think of me as family?”, and so the name had stuck.

As it stands now, it’s a night everyone looks forward to. The band and Flynn love it because it’s one night where they can all just chill and leave their worries for later. Plus, Ray had realized a few months ago that all of them have a sleepover in the studio afterwards and had started making breakfast for all of them before they head home – if they head home instead of rehearsing.

It gave Ray a piece of mind too, which was a fact Alex learned accidentally a few months later when he had overheard Ray talking to a photo of his late wife. Alex had always felt slightly awkward in the Molina household, almost like he was intruding, but after overhearing Ray that night, the feeling had all but melted away. It was months ago now, but Alex can still hear _They have nowhere to go, Rose, if I can give them a family for one night a week, then I’m going to give them the best damn family they’ve ever had. I know you never got to meet them, but you would have loved them._ as clear as day.

“Reggie, _mijo_ , do you mind passing me the beans on your right there?” Ray says from the stove where he’s making sofrito. It’s always a toss-up for what they’ll have for dinner during Molina Extended Family Dinner Night. Due to Ray’s work schedule, he might order a pizza or have to miss it altogether, but those nights are few and far between. Nights like tonight are the most common and also Alex’s favourite. Ray will make Latin dishes out of Rose’s old stained-but-loved cookbook, and tonight they’re having one of Reggie’s favourites, some beans and rice dish Alex doesn’t know the name of.

“Here you go, Ray,” Reggie says while handing the beans over from his place on the counter.

“How’s the onion going back there, Alex?” Ray says over his shoulder while adding the beans to the sofrito.

Alex looks down at the onion he was unevenly cutting. He’s not the best chopper of all of them, but out of the five of them, he was definitely the best, especially considering that Luke had been banned from the kitchen. Blinking the tears out of his eyes – stupid freaking onions – he looks up at Ray.

“It’s going good, definitely rustic but also definitely diced.”

“Perfect, we still need the green pepper and cilantro, but after that, you guys should be good to go.”

As Alex nods, there’s an eruption of noise from the living room. Julie and Flynn had gone upstairs to paint each other’s nails before dinner, which had essentially given Luke and Carlos free reign on the gaming consoles. By the sound of it, Alex would make a pretty solid bet that they’re playing some form of Super Mario game and that they had died right before beating the level.

“You boys having fun out there?” Ray calls.

“No!” The two call back, sounding concerningly similar despite the age difference. Alex looks over at Reggie, and they both crack up a little, with Ray quickly joining in.

The next few minutes pass in comfortable silence, with the only noise being the shouts and music from the living room. Alex finishes chopping the pepper and cilantro, handing them over to Ray, who then says that the two of them can head out while he finishes cooking everything.

As they both walk into the living room, Alex pulls his phone out of his pocket. His heart spikes when he sees an unread text message, but it quickly drops when he realizes It just a text from his sister with a link to a TikTok.

“Still nothing?” Reggie says, clearly catching the disappointment Alex was hoping hadn’t made it to his face.

“Nope,” Alex dismisses, putting his phone back in his pocket. Reggie grabs Alex’s now-free hand and turns to look at him.

“I’m sure he’ll text you. Or if he doesn’t, is he really worth all this pouting?” Alex smiles dimly at him, shaking his head to answer Reggie’s probably rhetorical question. “You’re amazing, Alex, and if he can’t see that, then he doesn’t deserve you. Okay?”

Alex takes a deep breath and tries to internalize Reggie’s message.

“Okay.”

Reggie smiles at his response and then tugs him closer to the living room.

“C’mon then, we’ve got 20 minutes and two asses to kick at Mario Kart.”

* * *

Dinner is a blast, as always, according to Alex. Ray asks all of the standard dad questions – “how’d that presentation go, Reggie?”, “have you guys figured out your setlist yet?”, “so, what’s everyone up to school?” – that last one causes Julie to groan, but Alex is thankful for Ray’s genuine interest. Ray doesn’t just ask these questions to fill empty air, he actually wants to hear the answers from everyone even if nothing interesting is going on.

It’s almost like the dinners Alex grew up with, just with a little more chaos since Luke almost starts a food fight every week. He fails this week, but that’s only because Flynn stares him down and threatens to break all of his guitar strings if he gets even an ounce of beans on her sweater.

Dinner’s over before Alex knows it, and they quickly clean up. As the five of them head out to the studio, Flynn and Reggie start trying to pick the movie to watch that night. As they’re almost at the studio, Alex gets distracted by a buzzing in his pocket.

_ From: Willie <3 _

_ (7:32 pm) haha that’s wild _

It’s been over a full twelve hours since Alex had texted him in the morning. It wasn’t anything special, just an offhand comment about a quiz in English class that morning. Needless to say, an English quiz definitely is not ‘wild’.

Willie doesn’t text him for an entire day, and now he responds with some half-assed text? Alex doesn’t know what happened to the sweet, outgoing, kind boy he ran into at the rink, but he knows that’s not the boy he’s texting now. Maybe he never was, after all, there’s a reason Alex usually avoids hockey boys at all costs. He can’t believe he was so stupid to think that this might be different.

“Yo, Alex!” Luke calls, pulling Alex out of his spiral before he falls too far. “Tie-breaking vote: _Legally Blonde_ or _Good Will Hunting_?”

“ _Legally Blonde_ , why did you even need to ask?” Alex responds while entering the studio. It’ll be a cold day in Hell before Alex passes up an opportunity to watch Elle Woods absolutely killing it.

“I told you that’s what he’d say,” Julie says smugly while setting up the old TV Ray had moved into the studio the year before.

They all arrange themselves across the couch and the pillow-covered floor – fitting five people on a couch is practically impossible, despite all of their best efforts. Alex finds himself on the floor this time, with Reggie’s head in his lap and leaning against Flynn’s knees. He can’t quite see how Luke, Julie, and Flynn are arranged up on the couch, but he knows they’re tangled up somehow.

While Julie, Reggie, and Luke are bickering about something related to best popcorn flavours, Flynn pokes her knee into Alex’s shoulder, and Alex tips his head back to look at her. From Alex’s vantage point, her face is upside down, but she appears concerned.

“Did Willie ever text you back?” she says, quiet enough that the other three don’t hear. Alex cringes, which then morphs into a grimace. He doesn’t know how to explain it to Flynn very well, so he just pulls out his phone and shows her. Her nose wrinkles in disgust as she reads, before handing his phone back.

“What a dick.”

Alex immediately goes to defend Willie before thinking against it, because yeah, he was a dick, and Alex doesn’t have to put up with this. Instead, he hums in agreement.

“Well, forget about him, let’s watch Elle Woods kick law school’s ass!” Flynn says, increasing her volume for the last half of her sentence. Alex doesn’t know if the popcorn conversation had ended in the time he and Flynn had been talking or if Flynn interrupted them, but either way, her sentence elicits a cheer from the other three. Julie hits the play button, and Alex lets himself get lost in Elle’s world.

* * *

Alex wakes up the next morning with Reggie’s elbow in his kidney. He catches sight of the clock on the wall, reading _7:14 am_ , and decides he can sleep a little longer. He shifts over slightly to alleviate some of the pain, and Reggie, who is definitely still asleep, reaches out to pull Alex closer. Alex rolls his eyes, but since he’s no longer being impaled, he settles in and tries to fall back asleep.

He must succeed because the next time he opens his eyes, Reggie has rolled away from him and Julie is nowhere to be seen. Alex sits up and stretches. If Julie’s awake, breakfast is probably on its way to being done.

Sure enough, when Alex walks into the house a few minutes later, Ray has a decent stack of French toast already made.

“Morning,” Alex says to Ray and Julie, the latter of whom is sitting at the table on her phone with a glass of orange juice. He gets two variations of ‘good morning’ back from them as he fills up the kettle to make tea.

“What are you up to today, Alex?” Ray says from his place by the stovetop. Alex takes a moment to take stock of what he actually does have to do today before responding.

“Well, I need to go home and get a change of clothes before my shift at the rink this afternoon.” Alex pulls out his phone – no new messages – and checks his schedule. “I have to work at 1, so I have a couple hours before then.”

“Do you need a ride home?” Ray asks, putting the final few pieces of French toast on the stack.

“If it’s not too much of a bother, that’d be great, yeah.” Alex smiles. He still can’t fully believe how lucky they, or more specifically Julie, got with Ray.

“Of course it’s not a bother. Just let me know when you want to head out.” Ray turns around to look at Julie. “Do you mind gathering everyone and telling them breakfast’s ready? I can get Carlos.”

Julie nods before getting up to leave for the studio.

“Good luck waking Luke up,” Alex says to her as she passes him.

“You’re worried about waking up Luke?” she says with amusement written all over her face. “You’ve never had to wake up Flynn, have you?” When Alex shakes his head, she laughs. “And I hope you never have to.”

As Julie’s leaving through the front door, Ray starts heading upstairs to wake up Carlos. All alone in the kitchen, Alex begins setting up the table. He grabs the plate of French toast, sugar, and cinnamon, putting them all on the table before going to the fridge to grab the butter and syrup. He’s just setting all the plates and cutlery down when everyone starts trickling into the kitchen in varying states of consciousness.

Breakfast is a much more subdued affair compared to dinner. Although considering Luke doesn’t really wake up before two cups of coffee – something that concerns Alex greatly – the quieter nature of breakfast isn’t surprising. Before Alex knows it, he’s being dropped off at his house and bidding goodbye to Ray.

Alex unlocks the front door, stepping in and closing it as quietly as possible. He doesn’t hear any ambient noise, and there wasn’t a car in the driveway, so his family is probably out. Alex breathes a sigh of relief. He checks the time on his phone – no new messages – while climbing the stairs to his room. It’s just past 11 am, so Alex has just long enough to shower and change before he has to catch the bus to the community centre.

He showers as quickly as he can, throwing on a pair of black jeans, his Bowie shirt, and his jean jacket before brushing out his wet hair. When his hair is at a point where he thinks it’ll dry decently on its own, he grabs his fanny pack with his copy of _Othello_ in it and heads out the door to the bus stop.

* * *

Most of Alex’s shift passes without fanfare, and he even manages to finish his readings for his English class. It isn’t until the referee hands over the game sheet for the final game of his shift that something throws him off his rhythm. Right there, on the Home Team side of the sheet, is _Los Angeles Phantoms Midget AA._ Sure enough, when Alex scans down the sheet, he sees _#29 William Shear_. There’s a brief moment where Alex lets himself hope that Willie isn’t playing today, but that quickly disintegrates when Alex sees Willie’s scrawled signature beside his name.

When the teams both line up for the opening face-off, Alex is suddenly disappointed that he’s finished his book and has nothing to distract him. His only saving grace right now is that he doesn’t think Willie’s in the starting line up and Alex can’t single out Willie from the bench from his booth.

The game passes painfully for Alex. Willie is just as captivating on the ice this time as he was last time, and Alex has to keep pulling his eyes away from him. Despite the continuous distractions, the game is actually a good one. The teams are extremely well-matched, and they go into the third period tied before the visiting team scores with two minutes left. The Phantoms can’t respond, and they end up losing 1-0.

When Alex gives the game sheet to the referee at the end of the game, he thinks he’s gotten off easy. Willie didn’t acknowledge him in the booth all game, but whether that’s because Willie didn’t see him or if he’s ignoring him, Alex doesn’t know. He also doesn’t know which option he’d prefer. Timekeepers are practically invisible to the players unless they get a penalty, which even then, it’s 50/50 whether they look over to the booth or not. Alex thinks it might be worse if Willie is ignoring him – but then again, that’s what he’s been doing for the past two days, so it’s nothing new. Or has Willie already moved on and didn’t even consider that Alex could be working because he doesn’t think of Alex anymore? Maybe that option is worse.

Alex shakes his head, trying to physically shake himself out of his thoughts before they spiral too far. He leaves the rink, going to the backroom to clock out. On his way back through the lobby of the community centre, some of the players have already begun to leave the dressing rooms and Alex has to weave through them and their families. He’s just dodging a pair of goalie pads when he runs into someone else.

“Oh my god, I’m so sor –“ Alex looks up at the player he ran into. “Willie?”

Willie looks taken aback then has a variety of emotions flash across his face. Unfortunately, the flashes all come and gone before Alex has any hope of identifying them.

“Alex, hey.” Willie softens and half-smiles at him, just flashing his teeth.

“William!” A booming voice calls across the lobby. Alex looks over at the person who yelled and sees Willie’s coach/stepdad. Now that Alex is a little closer to him, he can see that the man has unnervingly blue eyes. Alex turns back to Willie, who gives him a close-lipped smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Willie leaves, walking over to his stepdad while Alex is left watching him. Alex looks up one last time at Willie’s stepdad, who just gives him a smug look before Alex turns away.

As Alex is waiting for the bus, he reflects on everything that just happened. He is far more confused about this whole situation than he was twenty-four hours ago. His bus turns onto the street a couple blocks down the road, and Alex casts one last glance across the parking lot to the community centre. As he does, he sees two figures, who are clearly Willie and his stepdad, loading Willie’s gear into a pickup truck. Alex notes in the back of his head that this must be Caleb’s truck, remembering the small car Alex was in on their first date. He looks for one more second before the bus pulls up, and he steps on, leaving the community centre behind.

Later that night, Alex is getting ready for bed, but he can’t get the events of today out of his head. He hates when he doesn’t know his specific position in a situation and he’s fed up of waiting for Willie to provide any solace. He picks up his phone from where it’s charging on the nightstand and opens his text thread with Willie.

_ To: Willie _

_ (10:43 pm) Look man, idk how you hockey players are, but you can’t just kiss someone like that and then barely acknowledge their existence afterwards _

When he turns out his lights a little while later, his alarm clock bathes the room in faint red light from where it reads 11:21 pm on his nightstand. Before finally going to sleep, he checks his phone one last time.

_ To: Willie _

_ (10:43 pm) Look man, idk how you hockey players are, but you can’t just kiss someone like that and then barely acknowledge their existence afterwards _

READ 10:47 PM

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> told you this would be fun :)
> 
> as always, you can find me on tumblr @[reversedscene](https://reversedscene.tumblr.com/)  
> have a great weekend everyone!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex had updated his friends about the events – or lack thereof – of the weekend. They were ready to fight Willie on sight – or more accurately, stalk him online so Flynn could go to his house and give him a piece of her mind. They all agreed long ago that Flynn’s verbal dressing down is infinitely more intimidating than any of them could be in a fight. Alex had talked them all down, saying there’s no point in putting more effort into Willie – positive or negative – than he was putting into Alex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for kinda leaving you guys high and dry for the past couple weeks, i had a bunch of projects due for school and had absolutely no free time, but i swear i'm back 
> 
> **TW: mentions of plot-relevant homophobia (nothing is said on screen but someone calls alex gay in a homophobic way off screen), fighting (no blood or injury)**
> 
> more hockey terminology because i don’t know how common these terms are:  
>  _chippy_ \- a descriptor for a game that is more physical than usual, typically harder hitting hits and more slashing at the opposing player with your stick  
>  _chirping_ – making fun of/insulting a person, typically to get under their skin
> 
> once again, thank you so much for all of the support for this fic, i’m completely blown away by all of it. you’re all the absolute best :)  
> also if you have left a comment on this fic, 1. i love you 2. i have absolutely read it, been filled with joy, and will 100% respond to it soon, i'm not ignoring you guys

It’s been five days since Alex sent that last text to Willie and five days since he had any form of contact with him. Willie had never responded, and he didn’t see him at the rink, so Alex hadn’t seen him since. In fact, Willie probably wasn’t at the rink at all since his team wasn’t on the schedule. Alex refuses to admit to the relief he felt when he saw that on Sunday morning. Willie’s intentional ghosting was still an open wound then, and Alex didn’t think he could bear to see him.

The following Monday, Alex updated his friends about the events – or lack thereof – of the weekend. They were ready to fight Willie on sight – or more accurately, stalk him online so Flynn could go to his house and give him a piece of her mind. They had all agreed long ago that Flynn’s verbal dressing down is infinitely more intimidating than any of them could be in a fight. Alex had talked them all down, saying there’s no point in putting more effort into Willie – positive or negative – than he was putting into Alex.

Over the next couple of days, the sting of it all reduced to barely a dull ache. As much as he wants answers from Willie, he knows where he stands in Willie’s mind now, and there’s no point in trying to convince someone you’re worthy of their attention. Alex would know, he did that for years with his parents and look where that got him.

The final bell of the day rings through the school and Alex packs up his books before heading to his locker. The high school team has a game after school, so his shift at the community centre starts within fifteen minutes. He doesn’t have time to say goodbye to everyone, and they all know that, so he shoots a quick wave to Luke, who’s down the hall, before heading out the door and walking down the street to the rink.

It’s the middle of February, so there’s still some bite in the air, and Alex shoves his hands into his hoodie’s kangaroo pocket. It’s Alex's favourite hoodie, baby pink and soft. It had been a gift from the band and Flynn the Christmas after he had come out to them and had stopped shying away from traditionally feminine things. His dad wasn’t too happy when he wore it the next morning, but he could suck it.

Alex clocks in when he gets to the rink and quickly sets up the board for the game. He never knows how easy the high school games will be since there’s so much variety in skill level among the schools, but it looks like this will be a blowout. This belief is only strengthened Alex notices one of the goalies put his pads on the wrong legs.

The game passes easily and it was a blowout, just like Alex predicted. He checks his watch and sees it’s at least an hour until the next game. That’s the blessing and curse of high school games. Since they start so early, the next couple ice slots aren’t ever booked, meaning Alex either has at least an hour to do homework or sit around bored out his mind. He “lucks out” today; he actually has some math homework that’s due tomorrow. He goes out into the lobby and sits out at one of the tables by the currently-closed snack bar to start on his work.

Over the following hour, the players for the next game start to trickle in and Alex gets through an embarrassingly small amount of trigonometry identities. After another unsuccessful attempt, he packs up his books and walks back to his booth.

When he arrives, he sets up the scoreboard again and settles in until the warmups begin. Alex watches the goalies and players line up at the doors, waiting for the referees to come out on the ice. He's a little too far to see who’s playing, but they’re definitely an older team judging by their height. The refs show up a handful of seconds later and Alex takes the game sheet from one of them, looking down at the teams playing.

“Fuck.”

Right there, written under HOME is _Los Angeles Phantoms Midget AA_ and, sure enough, down at number 29 is _William Shear_ with Willie’s signature scrawled in the corresponding box. This was just his luck. Of course, he can’t ignore Willie’s existence for even just a week. Alex sighs and prepares himself for a long game.

The first period passes without excitement. It’s a little chippy and some of the hits hit a little harder than they should, but there are no penalties or goals so it’s pretty easy on Alex’s end – if trying to avoid watching Willie can be called easy. The second has a couple penalties on both sides, just a few slashes and roughing penalties, but that just increases the tension between the teams. Alex is slightly better at not watching Willie during that period. 

The third period is significantly more exciting; the game stays harsh but the visiting team scores about five minutes in. Alex finishes marking the goal on the game sheet while the teams are lining up for the faceoff at center ice. He hates that he notices, but Willie is on the wing closest to Alex. He can see that Willie and the opposing winger talking to each other – no, chirping each other, Alex corrects, there’s no way what they’re saying is nice. Before Alex knows it, the two players are dropping their gloves and throwing punches at each other.

At some point during the fight, Willie loses his helmet and his hair goes flying everywhere. Both players have a grip on the other’s jersey and are landing hits on the other’s face and stomach. The visiting player loses his footing, bringing him to the ice with Willie on top of him. The refs quickly separate them after that and bring them to the penalty boxes.

“Visiting number 6 and home number 29, five minutes each for fighting.” One of the refs tells Alex, who nods while making note of the penalties on the game sheet.

Alex can see Willie shake out his hair out of the corner of his eye, flipping it before putting his helmet back on. He has to repeat  _ don’t look don’t look don’t look _ to prevent himself from glancing over to Willie. The good and bad thing about five-minute majors, especially fighting majors, is that they don’t end when the other team scores. Usually, this is good because Alex doesn’t have to deal with taking the penalty off the scoreboard which can be difficult if the scoreboard glitches out. This is really bad right now, however, because it means he and Willie will be less than three feet apart with only a sheet of plexiglass between them for at least five minutes.

The first minute passes fairly easily, Alex is pretty distracted between checking the penalty information and running the clock. The second minute is where things begin to get a little difficult. The play is in the home team’s zone, meaning Alex must look in Willie’s general direction if he wants to watch the game. While he’s watching, he can see from the corner of his eye that Willie’s staring at him.

Alex knows that if the past five days hadn’t happened, he’d look over at Willie who’d smile back at him. He’d probably be worried sick because Willie had fought – while it’s not unheard of in minor hockey it’s definitely a rarity. Hell, Alex is already a little worried about him despite his best efforts. It makes Alex wonder, though, why Willie had decided to fight. From what Alex knows of him, it seems so out of character – that someone who could kiss him so gently and smile at him like there were no problems in the world could also beat the shit out of someone at the drop of a hat. It makes no sense to him, especially considering there’s no expectation of fighting from someone Willie’s size – not that he’s small but he’s definitely not the biggest guy out on the ice right now.

Alex shakes his head, there’s no use getting bogged down in Willie’s intentions. If he did, he’d lose himself for days because nothing in the past week had made sense. He can still feel Willie’s eyes on him and Alex glances at the scoreboard to see there’s still 2:13, 2:12, 2:11, left on the fighting penalties. This is going to be a long one.

Alex is baffled though by Willie’s current behaviour. He practically ignores Alex the day after they share a – in Alex’s opinion – marvellous kiss, completely ghosts him for five days, and now he can’t take his eyes off Alex. Once again, for the third time since Alex has known him, Alex has no idea where he stands in Willie’s mind. He is incredibly tempted to glance over at Willie just to see his expression. He doubts it would be negative, it’s not like Alex was the one who ghosted him, but he doesn’t think it would be positive since, after all, he did ghost Alex. So that leaves, what, curiosity? But Alex knows he can’t look over or else he’ll lose himself agonizing over Willie’s every move.

The whistle blows, prompting Alex to stop the clock and he sees 0:42 left on the penalties.  _ Under a minute, Alex, you can do this _ . Play starts up a few seconds later and Alex keeps his eyes glued to the game. He watches the penalties trickle down to zero and agonizes over the fact that they’re matching penalties. Since they both occurred on the same play and are the same length, neither team played shorthanded meaning neither player can leave the box without there being too many men on the ice. As a result, they need to wait until the whistle blows for the two of them to go back to the benches.

Alex mentally curses the goalie every time he doesn’t cover the puck and every player who’s shot doesn’t go in. He just wants the whistle to blow before his self-restraint wears out. His prayers are answered a few seconds later when the goalie finally catches the puck and the whistle blows. He made it.

Both players let themselves out of their respective boxes and start making their way across the ice to their benches. Thinking it’s finally safe, Alex glances at Willie, who turns briefly, giving Alex a front-row seat to the pure devastation written all over his face before he turns back around.

For the remaining minutes of the game, Alex tries his best to focus on the game but can’t get that image of Willie out of his head. He doesn’t understand, Willie was the one who cut off communication, why on Earth would he look so sad by seeing Alex again?

The final buzzer rings and Alex packs up while the teams line up to shake hands. After handing over the game sheet and grabbing his backpack, he starts to leave the rink. He’s almost made it to the doors to the lobby – where he ran into Willie that first time – when he hears a shout behind him.

“Alex!”

He knows that voice. He also knows there’s only one person in the rink right now that knows him, besides the referees. He also knows he should just keep walking, that the person calling him isn’t worth more of his time. But his curiosity takes over. There’s just something bugging him about his inability to reconcile the Willie he thought he knew and this Willie who’s sending a thousand mixed messages. He stops and turns around.

Sure enough, there’s Willie still in all of his gear. His helmet and stick are in his hands and his hair’s all a mess from how he must a flung off his helmet after leaving the ice. He looks a little shocked like he wasn’t expecting Alex to stop, and that lingering sadness is still on his face. In all the time Alex has known him, Willie has never been good at hiding his emotions.

“Willie, hey,” Alex offers, still slightly reserved. When Willie doesn’t respond for a few moments, Alex gestures weakly to him and asks, “How’re the hands?”

The question seems to shake Willie out of his shock. He glances down at his hands quickly, laughing humourlessly and self-deprecatingly, before looking back at Alex. “They’re good. Definitely bruised but not bleeding or broken, so I got off easy.”

“That’s good.” An awkward silence falls between them after Alex’s response. Clearly, Willie wanted to say something to him otherwise, he wouldn’t have come and found Alex, and Alex is willing to wait him out. A couple moments later, Alex’s patience is rewarded.

“Look, Alex, I’m really sorry about these last few days. Caleb – my stepdad, remember?” Alex nods. “Yeah, he said I had to stop seeing you, that all of my attention should be going to the team since we’re so close to playoffs and that he would bench me if I kept being distracted.” Willie’s eyes had drifted down to his feet while he was speaking. He shrugs minimally, shaking his head. “I did what he said. He’s right, we’re really close to playoffs and we genuinely have a shot this year and I didn’t want to jeopardize the team.

“But there are things that are more important than hockey, and you’re one of them, Alex. If the past week – hell the past hour and a half during the game – has taught me anything, it’s that. And I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness; you can hate me for the rest of your life and you’d be totally justified in doing so. But I’m so incredibly sorry, Alex, and I shouldn’t have ignored you. I should have just talked to you, I know. I will spend as long as I need to convince you of that, and I will do my best to prevent it from happening again.”

Alex is completely taken aback. He doesn’t know what he expected to hear from him but that definitely wasn’t it. He doesn’t know what to think, can he trust what Willie’s saying? How does he know Willie will follow through? He does sound sincere, but what if there’s more backlash from Caleb? Will he drop him immediately again?

Ignoring all of the questions running through his head, Alex instead asks, “Why’d you get into that fight?”

For the second time during their interaction, Willie looks taken aback. “He was making fun of you. Calling you a bunch of names and slurs I don’t want to repeat because of your sweater. I know there’s a massive problem with homophobia in this sport and one fight won’t fix it, but I had to do something.”

Alex is oddly touched. He’d really prefer it if Willie doesn’t get into fights at all – valiant reason or not, hands are better if they remain unbroken, in Alex’s opinion. He’s still processing this entire conversation but decides to extend an olive branch to Willie.

“I’d prefer if you just kick their ass on the scoreboard instead, next time.”

Willie immediately catches on, his face filling with hope. “Next time?”

Alex nods slightly. “I’m still not entirely sure what to think, but I’m willing to hear you out.” A small smile breaks out on Willie’s face. “We do need to talk about this before anything else.”

“Yeah, totally, absolutely,” Willie says nodding, his smile growing.

A player’s head pops out from the home team dressing room down the hall. “Willie, man, what the hell’s taking so long? Get your ass in here!”

Willie’s smile turns apologetic. “I’ll text you tonight. I promise.”

“Sounds good.” Then, Alex remembers something Willie had said at the beginning of their conversation. “Also, just so you know, I don’t hate you, Willie.”

“Good. I’ll see you around, eh, hot dog?” Once Alex nods, Willie flashes a final smile before turns and heading back to his dressing room.

For the first time in five days, Alex isn’t left with a bitter feeling in his chest after thinking about Willie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading :)
> 
> as always, you can find me on tumblr @[reversedscene](https://reversedscene.tumblr.com/), i love hearing from people so don't be shy :)


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